GiveForward

It’s hard to believe, but Saturday was the two-year anniversary of the launch of GiveForward.   We couldn’t be more grateful for all the wonderful people who have been a part of our community thus far and just wanted to send out a quick thank you to everyone.

nom nom nom!

During this time, we’ve helped 1300 families raise almost $2 million for things like chemotherapy treatments, organ transplants and out-of-pocket living and travel expense. None of this would have been possible without our amazing community getting involved.  We appreciate the fundraising tips you have shared with us over the years, your positive (and occasionally negative) feedback and most importantly your willingness to spread the word about GiveForward to others who can benefit from our service!
read more…

One of the best ways to spread the word about your online fundraising page is to create a Facebook group where you can quickly share information among friends and ask people to donate.   The bigger your Facebook group, the more potential donors you have.  So here’s a useful tip on how to get lots of people to join your Facebook group.

Step 1. Find a donor ahead of time willing to match up to $500, $1000 or some similar amount.  If you don’t have a single donor willing to contribute this amount, try asking 5 friends to each donate $200 and pool the money for a total of $1000. read more…

"GiveForward is a game changer for those battling cancer and facing mounting medical expenses. I definitely recommend GiveForward to anyone wondering what they can do to help out when a friend or loved one is diagnosed." - Ethan Zohn, Cancer Survivor

A while back I had the chance to attend the OMG Cancer Summit for young adults in New York presented by I2Y and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

While there were a ton of really great speakers at the Summit like Adam Ostrow, Brad Ludden, Tamika Felder, Jonny Imerman and Matthew Zachary, for me, the best was keynote speaker and former Survivor winner, Ethan Zohn.  Maybe it’s because Ethan and I both share the same name, a love of soccer and had fathers pass away from colon cancer at an early age.  Or maybe it’s simply because we both happen to rock the jew-fro, but something about his speech really hit home with me. read more…

This week’s featured fundraiser on GiveForward is Valerie Sun, who is raising money for her friend’s daughter with Neuroblastoma. Valerie is the true true definition of the word trooper.   As a child, Valerie suffered from Apastic anemia and had multiple blood transfusions, a bone marrow transplant and multiple orthopedic surgeries.  Now she is better and has decided to give back.

This Sunday Valerie is taking on a two-mile swim in the Pacific Ocean with the hopes of raising $5000 for Mikayla. So far, Valerie has already raised $2500. We recently caught up with her and asked her to share her experience and some of her successful fundraising tips with our readers.  Check it out!

GiveForward: You’ve already raised over $2500.  Have you been surprised at the generosity you’ve seen?

Valerie Sun: Yes and no. Yes, because most everyone has had to scale back on charity giving due to the difficult economic times, and for folks to donate out of scarcity just goes to show the true depths of generosity present in people. No, because I am incredibly blessed to know so many of these type of people. I knew they would rally to support this cause – many are those who have helped me in various ways over the years when I had struggles with my illness.

GF: What has been your most successful fundraising tip so far that you’d recommend to others?

VS: I think the best tip was sending my request for help out initially to a small group of friends and family and asking for large dollar donations. I think that really set the tone so that most of the other donations ended up following suit.

read more…

We used to tell our members at GiveForward that there are three Ps to successful online fundraising: personalization, promotion, and persistence.  Recently, however, we came to the conclusion that it was time to update this basic strategy for the 21st century.  We now tell our members that if they want to be successful they need to follow the three Ps and an F.

The F, of course, stands for Facebook.  Over the last few years, we’ve seen that almost every medical fundraiser that has raised more than $10,000 on GiveForward has does so because of Facebook – it is simply the most effective tool for getting the word out about a fundraiser and getting it to spread quickly.  Here are four of the best strategies on how to use Facebook to help you reach your goal.

1. Create a Facebook Group.

Creating a Facebook group will allow you to get the word out about your fundraiser and keep your friends and family informed with news and updates.  As the group organizer you can send messages to all group members and use it as your platform to ask for donations.  Make sure to invite a few of your friends to become group admins and encourage their friends to invite their friends as well.  The larger the group, the greater the potential for donations.

read more…

Brad Ludden, Founder of First Descents

Last weekend I had a chance to meet Brad Ludden at the OMG Cancer Summit in New York.  Brad literally might have the best job in the world. Commonly known as one of the best professional kayakers in the world, Brad has traveled to over 40 countries as Nike’s first sponsored kayak athlete and can be seen gracing the cover of magazines such as Outside, Men’s Health and Men’s Journal.

But that’s not all he does.  In 2000, at the age 18, Brad founded the non-profit foundation, First Descents in order to provide those affected by cancer the chance to utilize whitewater kayaking and other outdoor adventures in order to play a key role in their overall recovery process. 

Since so many in the GiveForward community are raising money for young adults with cancer, I thought I’d take the opportunity to share this great resource with you all.   If you know of a young adult cancer survivor (age 18-39) please let them know about First Descents. (PS this amazing program is FREE!!)

I interviewed Brad for Nike’s Play City Blog where you can read the original interview in its entirety.  Here are some excerpts…

What is a first descent?

As an athlete, a first descent is the first time someone successfully completes a section of a river.  There’s a heightened level of exploration, risk and challenge involved so the reward for completing it is even greater.   Between kayakers there is a level of mutual respect when you complete one, and after you’ve done one, you’re a changed person.

So how does this work? What class rapids are these when you’re doing a first descent?

[laughs] They’re the don’t screw up class.    When you’re doing a first descent the classes become kind of irrelevant.  I suppose the rapids could be classified as class Vs and VIs but since it’s the first time anyone has ever run these rapids, it takes it up another level where the slightest mistake can be fatal.  You don’t have the option to screw up.

Brad taking on some class “don’t screw up class” rapids.

Can you tell us a little bit more about what inspired you to start First Descents?

My aunt was diagnosed with cancer when I was a teenager.  It was the first time that cancer had intruded on any of our lives and it was devastating. I wanted to do something to help so I started teaching people with cancer how to kayak, it was all I knew to give.  In the beginning I saw that it was doing something to help but wasn’t sure what that was.  What I WAS sure of was that it was doing a lot to help me.  It was the most rewarding and gratifying thing I had ever done.  Then, when I was 18 I realized there wasn’t an adventure program available to people my Aunt’s age with cancer.  In fact, there wasn’t really anything available.  Thus, I decided to start a program that taught young adults with cancer how to kayak and used that as a form of therapy.

read more…

Every day at GiveForward I think to myself that I have the best job on the planet, and it’s because we have the greatest community of users in the entire universe. Yesterday I got an incredibly warm email from one of our favorite users Loree Frazitta who is fundraising for her sister’s breast cancer treatment.  Like many of our users, Loree has become almost like a family member to us at GiveForward.  She had written the following email to a magazine editor yesterday in hopes of spreading the word about GiveForward and was kind enough to send me a copy.  With her permission, we thought we would share this wonderful email on our blog:

When my younger sister Nicole, 28, mother of two girls, found out she had breast cancer we were all in shock. Not only was breast cancer not in our family, but my sister and her husband did not have health insurance at the time of her diagnosis.  My sister learned she would need a double mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation.

Our family wanted her to concentrate on fighting this fight with cancer and getting better- not how much it would cost to do so.  Giveforward.org gave us the tool to do that. It created one place for family, friends and even complete strangers to come together to make a difference. In two weeks using Giveforward we raised over 25K!!!! AMAZING

read more…

To all those in the Chicago tech startup community, our friends at Chi-Town Startups are hosting Startup48 on April 17th.

You can get all the deets at their website www.chitownstartups.org

What is Startup48?  Well, we’re glad you asked.  Here’s a quick summary…

“Over the 48 hours startup teams will go from idea to proof?of?concept and creation of a
demo. Startup ideas will be submitted prior to the weekend and teams will be organized
based on popularity of idea and experience needed to get the concept to market, sort of like
a startup team blind date. On Sunday, teams will present before a panel of guest judges.

read more…

When a friend or loved one gets sick and is facing huge medical bills, the quickest and easiest way to raise money for them is through an online fundraising page.  Before getting started, however, it’s critically important to come up with an organized fundraising plan.

Since we know that most people raising money for their loved one’s medical expenses may be fundraising for the first time, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you by creating a step-by-step plan that will make it super-easy for you to reach your fundraising goal.  If you are about to start a fundraising page for a friend or loved one, please take the next 15 minutes to read through the plan — trust us, it will make a HUGE difference in the success of your fundraiser.

Step 1:  Build a Fundraising Team to Help Spread the Word

If you are thinking of raising money for a loved one, before you get started ask a few of your mutual friends if they would be want to help in the efforts to spread the word. With the assistance of a few friends all sending emails and Facebook messages out to their different networks your team will be able to reach out to 4-5 times as many potential donors as you could by yourself.

As the team leader or team captain, you will, of course, still be responsible for drafting the emails and coordinating the efforts, but your team members will be able to help you in spreading the word to a wider group of people.

Note — If you cannot get a group of friends to help with the efforts, don’t worry about it.  Creating a team of friends is definitely helpful, but is not absolutely necessary to be successful.

Step 2: Kick Off  Your GiveForward Fundraiser With a Donation From Yourself

Getting off to a good start is the single greatest thing you can do to make sure you reach your goal.

If you can afford to do so, the first thing you are going to want to do is set the tone for your fundraiser by donating yourself. Donate as much as you can afford, as this will show people how important this effort is to you and will set the tone for the rest of the fundraiser — if you set the tone by donating a large amount, others will do the same. read more…

We see a lot of fundraisers on GiveForward to pay for pet medical expenses and we’re always thrilled when they do well.

Recently, we received a “virtual high five” from one of our users, Courtney Pierce, a veterinarian who was raising money to cover the costs of surgery for Surfer, a wounded dog that got hit by a car in Nicaragua.  She gave us permission to reprint her email, so we thought we’d share it with you all:

Sarah,

I just received the proceeds from Surfer’s fundraiser and was so touched at the personal note included with his check. It brought a smile to my face and warmth to my heart. I have been so pleased with the GiveForward.org site, it has made our fund raising easy, efficient and effective! I will most certainly share my positive experience with others. Keep up the good work!
read more…